I haven’t read The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers in nearly 20 years, but as I recall Paul Kennedy argued that:
- Rising powers have robust, growing economies but modest militaries.
- Declining powers have stagnant, indebted economies and huge, outsize militaries.
Which pretty accurately describes the budget Biden’s administration introduced Monday.
And is there a better bellwether for a system in which the most important goal is not innovation and embracing change, but protecting the interests of those who already have theirs?
